Page 6 of Bossy Surprise Baby

And under no circumstances would I go back to the place that killed him.

Toby. With his gentle smile gone and blue eyes shut forever. Little boy, dead to the world.

But then again, I should be used to death by now. It seemed that all I knew how to do was lose people.

3

CHARLOTTE

“Ms. Charlie! Ms. Charlie!”

I turned around to spot the ten-year-old who was waving her hands in my face. We were in the supply closet, surrounded by balls and basketball shoes that sat on rows above her head. I blinked at her, and she crossed her hands over her chest.

“I was calling you for a while, Ms. Charlie,” she said, pouting. “You were ignoring me.”

“No, I wasn’t ignoring you, Macy,” I assured the little girl while resisting the urge to ruffle her hair. She already told me not to do that, no matter how cute she was when she puffed her cheeks out like that. “I just zoned out.” I’d been zoning out the entire week, actually, if I was being honest.

There were just too many thoughts flying through my head at any given time this week. We were a few hundred dollars short on the mortgage, and my dad might need heart surgery soon. We might have to take out a second mortgage for that, but I wasn’t sure Dad would let us. Plus, Mom was running low on her medication too, and Casey was quickly outgrowing all his jeans.

Oh, and also Zane Kazan. I thought about him a lot and dreamt about the fact that I had sex with my sister’s ex-husband. Gosh, if my parents ever found out, not only would they probably disown me, but they would probably summon lightning from the skies to strike me down at the betrayal. Not to mention Casey. God, how could I do that to Casey?

You didn’t know.I told myself again for what seemed like the thousandth time.Life played a cruel trick on you, and the one time you got stupidly drunk in a club, you just happened to have sex with your family’s worst enemy.

But it was good and done. It was a mistake, a stupid one I would never repeat. No one-night stands for me anymore, either. And hopefully, I would never see Zane Kazan again.

But why was he in town anyway?

He barely even visited us when he was still married to my sister, and he had no ties here. Did he know it was me last night? Did he sleep with me on purpose to play some fucked up game with me?

The chilling thought haunted and angered me. But if that was true, then I hoped that was the end of it. Anyway, he was likely only in town for a few days and was probably gone by now. I didn’t want Zane Kazan anywhere near my parents, particularly when they were in their fragile health state.

“Are you zoning out again, Ms. Charlie?”

I brought my attention back to the precocious little girl again. “Yes,” I admitted. “Come on, let’s head back to the court before the rest of your teammates start slacking off.”

“Yes.” Macy nodded solemnly. Even though she was only ten, Macy took her job as the captain of the basketball team very seriously. We grabbed the extra balls that we’d come into the closet for in the first place and headed back out to the open outdoor court.

Teaching the middle school community basketball team started as a favor to a friend of mine, Lena Harrows, the former coach. She was overwhelmed, and they were going to shut the team down due to a lack of funding, but I offered to coach for free because of Lena. I only coached once a week, but now it has become a highlight of my week. I’d always loved kids, especially at this age when they’re grown just enough for me to have a conversation with them, but not yet in those terrible teenage years when they become mean and snarky.

As we headed back to the field, I noticed that a group of girls wasn’t doing sit-ups as I asked them to do. Instead, they sat on the floor in the corner and whispered away the way teenage girls often do. I clapped to get their attention, and they looked at me. The community basketball team was an after-school activity with a mixed group of middle school-aged kids. A couple of them were from the wealthier part of town, while some of them were less fortunate. But I didn’t allow segregation or bullying. I nipped that shit in the bud because as much as the world was a classist hellscape, I didn’t want that for my team. I wanted these girls to be friends, have fun, and have each other’s backs.

And the giggling and whispering didn’t bode well for anybody.

I smiled. “Is there anything you want to share with me?” I asked, and they hesitated, avoiding my gaze.

“No,” they said, but I knew it wasn’t true.

“I mean, I guess you could always run laps until y’all remember.”

They looked up at me in horror, and I shrugged. “Or you could tell me right now.”

“It’s just that we don’t know why we have to be here when Sydney can skip whenever she wants,” Ashley said, clearly braver than the rest of her friends.

I frowned at them. “What do you mean? Isn’t she here?”

They shook their heads, and Ashley crossed her arm. “She didn’t come last week when Mr. Robert was coaching either. I saw her at school, but then her dad took her home.”

“Her dad?” Alarm bells rang in my head. Something was wrong.

---